BBS in a Box 7/BBS in a Box - Macintosh - Volume VII (BBS in a Box) (January 1993).iso/AMUG Info/BBS/BBS Info/Posting

Text File | 1991-02-15 | 23KB | 549 lines

=====================
      THE MENU
=====================

    Figure 1, below,  shows the steps in posting a new message
on the Macintosh General Message Board:


          Figure 1


 ==== Macintosh General Message Board ====



<P>ost a new public Message

<S>can Public Messages

<D>elete a public message

<R>ead public messages

<F>ind a user's valid name for message addressing

<B>ack to Main Bulletin Board Menu

<E>xit to Main Menu

<C>hain to Macintosh News Message Board



(115 minutes left) Command (P,S,D,R,F,B,E,C) ? P

Send message to (ALL for everyone): all

.........1.........2.........3.........4

Subject (40 characters max.): test

You may now type in up to 40 lines of text. Lines will
automatically wrap around at the 75th character. To stop
entering, type a carriage return on a blank line.

     .........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.....

1:



                                      (End of Figure 1)



     At the menu we have entered "P" for Post, and the Host
responds  by asking to whom the message should be sent.  We
typed in "all",  since we intend this to be an open message
available to all users.   Instead we could enter an AMUG BBS
users name, and the message  would then be sent as E-Mail
(electronic mail) which can only be read  by the addressee.



     After finding out to whom the message is intended we are
now  asked to enter the subject.  As noted, you are allowed a
maximum of  40 characters.  Try to make the subject
descriptive in case someone  remembers the message, and does
a scan to try to locate it.  I am  sometimes guilty of using
"cute" subjects that sometimes bear little  objective
relationship to the message.  Because of that I have had
difficulty locating a message I myself had sent!  Anyhow, after
entering  the subject (in this case I used "test"), we are
presented with three  lines of instructions, then the cursor
moves next to the first line  indicated by "1:".  Above this is a
character counting guide.  You can  now just type in the text.
As noted, word wrap automatically takes  place at the 75th
character.  When through, just enter a return on a  blank line.
You can then edit your message to correct, and delete
characters words or lines.  When through editing type "S" for
save, and  you are all done.

     Does that sound simple?  Well, I don't know how simple it
sounds,  and how simple it actually is depends on a number of
things.  What I  do know is no matter how simple that sounds,
that is not the best way  to do it, except (perhaps) for short
simple messages.  And if your  typing is not so hot, you already
know there's no such thing as a short,  simple typed message.
It is so important for both you, and fellow users  that you use
a better way, I will devote a lot of time to describing a  better
way.  If you still use a typewriter instead of a wordprocessor,
then you might as well skip the rest of this section;  you are
clearly a  masochist, and won't take any advice.  If not..... read
on.



=============================================

     WHY NOT JUST TYPE IN YOUR MESSAGE?
=============================================



     Although I have seen a few pretty good hunt and peckers,
unless  you are a pretty fast and accurate touch typist,
entering messages by  on-line typing is just too slow.  As
you've no doubt discovered (or you  soon will), there is a 30
minute time limit.  While you are hunting and  pecking, or just
sitting there thinking about what to say, the clock is  ticking.
You may well be disconnected right in the middle of your
work, losing the time already invested.  With regard to sitting
there  thinking, note also that if a key is not pressed for 5
minutes, then you  will be timed out for inactivity, even if
your 30 minutes is not up.  In  case you think this timing out is
rude and unnecessary, you would be  surprised at how many
people forget to hang up their telephones.  If  the time out
feature wasn't present the system would just be tied up
unnecessarily too frequently.



     Also, editing your messages after you have finally got it
entered is  not so easy and it, too, is time-consuming.  And
there are some things  you cannot correct, at least some of the
time.  For example, if you  leave out a word, or even a letter,
or want to substitute a longer word  for a shorter, you may not
be able to do so.  The reason is the 75  character limit to lines.



     So, if there is a better way, and there is, you should use it.
Not  just to preserve your allowed on-line time, but to free up
the system  for other users.  The AMUG BBS is young, and will
certainly continue to  grow in use resulting in more frequent
busy signals which some are  noticing now.  We must all
cooperate in using the BBS more efficiently  for the benefit of
all.




=======================================================
THE BETTER WAY - UPLOADING TEXT FILE MESSAGES
=======================================================




     I think it was Winston Churchill that said "Democracy is
the worst  form of Government except for all the others".  I
hope you end up  thinking the same about uploading messages
instead of typing them in,  because it is not without its
tribulations.  The scenario we are  suggesting is this:  You log
on, read your mail and the new messages,  noting and saving
any that you wish to ponder over and reply to.  You  then log
off.  You compose any reply or new message you wish to post
on your word/text processor.  After you have edited it to your
satisfaction, you log back on and upload your message.  Ideally
you  might not even literally read your mail and messages
on-line, but just  let your software read it for you, at 1200 or
2400 BAUD if you have that  speed.  Virtually all
communications software has a means of collecting  the BBS
output.  You can scroll back to read it off-line, capturing to a
disk file anything you need to save to be read by a
wordprocessor.



     Even more ideally you can create a script (macro) file to do
all of  that for you.  Script1.6 was created by Mike Bean for the
"Microphone"  software an put on this board.  It is an excellent
way to do all of the  above automatically.  It will also give you
a listing of the new files  available for downloading.
Depending on how much mail, new message  or new files there
are you can do pretty fast, often in less than a  minute!  Other
software has similar capabilities.  You can even set  some
software to execute scripts at a predetermined time, say 4
AM.   You can then have something to read when you get up
other than the  morning paper!  I had a script file (for
Smartcom II) that would do the  same for 3 different bulletin
boars systems!.  But even if you do  everything manually except
compose messages on-line, you will be  doing yourself and
other members a favor.  The next section deals with  how to
create and upload text messages.



======================================================
         UPLOADING TEXT MESSAGES - HOW TO
======================================================



The prime requirements are:



     (1)  That messages to be uploaded be in  plain (ASCII) text

     (2)  That there be no blank lines in the text

     (3)  That the text contain no more than 40 lines, and

     (4)  That you (may)  need to be careful about entering
             carriage returns in the text.



     We'll  deal with these one at a time (how else; we don't
have parallel  processing until the next generation Macs!!).



PLAIN (ASCII) TEXT



     All word processors I know of will allow you to save a file
in text  format (or convert one to text format).  You can use
your  wordprocessor to  create and edit your message, and just
save it in text  form.  When you do, you will lose all special
fonts, and special  formatting your wordprocessor may allow.
If your text has columns or  figures lined up or centered, it
could be a problem when you upload it.   The best way to make
sure that what you see from your wordprocessor  is what you
get when you upload the file is to use a monospaced font  (such
as Monaco), since what appears on the screen in the BBS is
monospaced.  Of course you don't have to do this if your text
has no  special formatting.



     I should point out here that we are only talking  about
uploading a text file to be used as a message, that is to post a
message on the BBS system or to send mail.  You can upload a
text file  using Xmodem in whatever format you choose,
including MacWrite,  Word, etc.  All your formatting and fonts
will be preserved.  It will not  be able to be output directly to
the AMUG BBS screen the way a plain  text message can be.  It
will have to be downloaded, and whoever  downloads it will
have to have the wordprocessor you used (or one that  can read
it; for example, MicroSoft Word can read MacWrite files, but
not vice versa;  both can read plain text files).



     There are some "text" (as opposed to "word") processors
available  from a variety of sources, including public domain,
shareware and  commercial sources.  Many are available as
desk accessories.   MockWrite and miniWriter (available from
the AMUG BBS download  section) are a couple that are widely
used.  miniWriter is my favorite,  but probably more people use
MockWrite;  and there are others.  The  obvious advantage of
using a DA is that you can compose and edit text  without
leaving whatever application you are in, including your
communication software.  In fact, If you are reasonably
dextrous, and  can keep from getting timed out, you can
compose your message while  on-line, using the superior
editing capabilities of these DAs (superior to  that of the BBS
I mean), then paste your message in.  I don't  recommend this
as a normal practice, since that defeats the main  purpose
being expoused here, i.e.,. minimizing on-line time.  The output
of these text processor is plain (ASCII) text.



NO BLANK LINES!!!



     The Host needs some way of knowing when you are through
entering a message.  It chooses a blank line as the method.  If
you are  typing the message you may press return to start
another line.  You  don't have to do this, since the Host will
start a new line for you  automatically after 75 characters.
You may wish to do this to break  the text up into paragraphs,
or to align some words or numbers.  If,  after pressing return,
you press return again without entering anything  the Host
assumes you are through, and then puts you in the editing
mode.  That's the normal way to end a message.  You get this
command line:



C>ancel, S>ave, L>ist, I>nsert, D>elete, A>dd, E>dit:
(C,S,L,I,D,A,E)?



     At this point if you do not wish to edit, just type "S".  Your
message is saved, and you are returned to whence you came for
further action.  If you don't like what you have done, and want
to  purge it from the board, just type "C" for cancel and your
message is  gone forever.  The other choices involve editing
your message which will  be discussed in another section.



     If you are uploading a text message, the important thing to
remember is that when creating that message you cannot use a
blank  line to separate paragraphs (or for any other purpose).
If you do, all  sorts of interesting, sometimes panic-striking
things occur.  The Host  takes the blank line to mean you are
through, and puts you into edit  mode.  However, your
communications software knows you are not  through, and
continues to send text.  The Host assumes the characters  now
being received are editing commands, and tries to execute
them!!   Chaos!!  If you can avoid panic, use whatever means
your software has  to tell it to stop sending text.  Usually
there is an abort or stop button  to press to do that.  You will
then have to cancel your message and  start all over, taking
the blank lines out of your text file before trying  to send it
again.



     I personally hate to try to read lengthy messages without
any  paragraphing at all, and try to make my posts a little
more readable.   Although the Host won't let you separate
paragraphs with blank lines,  you can use a trick or two.  One
is to separate paragraphs with a line  containing a single
character, such as a period, a dash, or something  similar.  A
space won't do it (I tried that!).  That's not as readable as a
blank line, but it helps.  If you are typing in text you can do it
with a  Tab.  That works very well, but you can't use this
method in text  being uploaded as a message.  What I often do
upload my text message  with no blank lines, then separate
paragraphs during edit mode by  inserting a new line above
each "new" paragraph and entering a Tab  only.  It works best
to start with the last paragraph and work up.   This takes a
while, but I think its worth it to improve readability a bit.



WATCH YOUR RETURNS !!!



     The next requirement is that you need to be a little careful
about  using returns due to the BBS limit of than 75 characters
per line.   Computerwise, the normal definition of a "line" is a
group of characters  followed by a carriage return (just
"Return" on the keyboard).  Some  computers automatically add
a carriage return (and linefeed) after so  many characters.  The
Mac does not.  Unless you enter a Return  yourself, most text
processors will end up giving you one long "line",  clearly more
than the 75 characters the AMUG BBS will accept for
messages.  The AMUG BBS will automatically add a carriage
return at  the 75th character (doing a word wrap, so words
aren't split up).



     So what's the problem?  Well theoretically none, but in
practice  you will have a problem if you try to split up
paragraphs with carriage  returns.  Sooner or later, by
coincidence, the carriage return you  entered to separate a
paragraph will occur right after the AMUG BBS  reads 75
characters.  The Host will then do a Return.  The next thing it
sees is your return which it takes to mean you are through
entering  text.  You run into the same panic problem mentioned
above.  The Host  says you are through and puts you into edit
mode, you say the heck I  am and continue to send text, and the
Host tries to interpret that text  as editing commands.  Even if
this doesn't happen, what may is that  the Host does a return
after it sees 75 characters, then comes a word or  two
followed by a return you have placed in the text.  You then end
up with a lot of dis-jointed text with lines of only a word or
two.  This  could also cause you to unwittingly exceed the 40
line limit to messages  (see below for what happens to you
then!).  So, what to do about it.



     One solution is to enter absolutely no returns at all in your
text,  and let the Host take care of putting them in.  This
works, but for long  messages it results in a long, wide,
uninterrupted block of text which is  hard to read (see my
comments above for my opinion of the  importance of
readability).  If you are using Microphone you can set  your
send files to enter returns at a specified number of
characters.  I  set it to 72 characters which I find to be more
readable than 75.  If  your text is 40 lines or close thereto, you
do need to be a little careful  that reducing line length this
way doesn't run you over the 40 line limit  (see below).  I find
the ability of the software to set line length for text  output
very useful.  Maybe other software can do this too.



     Another easy way is to manually enter returns yourself at
the  end of each line, or where you want a new line to start for
formatting  purposes.  Just make sure your lines are less than
75 characters.  I  think 72 is a nice, readable line so I use that
when I use this method.   If you are judging where a carriage
return should to go by how it  appears on your screen there are
a couple things to remember.  One is  to consider the font you
are using.  The Host will use a 9-point font, so  what looks like
an effective place to put a return if you are using a  14-point
font may not turn out to be so effective when a 9-point font is
used.  The other is the size of your screen window.  If you are
using a  small font and a very wide window, putting a return at
the right edge  of the window might give you more than 75
characters.



     By the way, there are some text processors that you can set
to  automatically enter a return (with word wrap) after a
specified  number of characters.  Microeditor, a desk accessory
that comes with  Microphone, is one.  Microphone has licensed
this DA from Dreams of  the Phoenix which sells it as part of
their "Quick and Dirty Utilities,  Volume 2" (I think it is
volume 2).  There are a number of utilities  which will add or
strip returns (and other characters) from text files.
Evolutions, (available on this board, is one.  Another I find
useful is the  Clipper FKey.  I like this since you can use it "on
the fly".  It works  only on text files (not, say, MacWrite files).
With this, you can cut or  copy text to the clipboard, then use
the FKey to add or strip returns,  then paste it back.  I find this
most useful to strip returns rather than  to add them, since I
often don't like the returns that others have  entered into text
files.



     Anyhow, for what it's worth here is how I handle the
problem.  I  prepare text using carriage returns to separate
paragraphs and  indenting the first line of paragraphs with a
tab, or more usually 3-5  spaces.  I set Microphone to send
returns at 72 characters, and upload  away.  I take my chances
that I may by coincidence get two  consecutive carriage
returns (mine and the one the Host enters after 75  lines).  It
doesn't often happen, and if it does I'm prepared to start  over.
I then often go in and edit in lines with tabs only on them to
separate paragraphs.  You can use this same method.



     If you don't like to "take you chances", you could compose
your  text, then use clipper 1.5, Evolutions, or a similar utility
to add returns  at a specified number of characters, convert
the text to a 9-point,  monospaced font, then take a look at it.
That should be as close as you  can get to what you see is what
you get on the AMUG BBS screen.



NO MORE THAN 40 LINES



     I hate this!  As you may have noted from the length of this
document I do tend to go on a bit.  I'm not sure why the Host
places  this limit on messages.  I suppose the idea is to reduce
the length of  on-line message reading.  If posts get too large,
it may be better to  upload them instead as down-loadable
files.  One could then post a short  message telling what the
file is, and why the author thinks one should  go to the trouble
of down-loading it.  Anyhow, like or not, that's it: 40  lines.



     If you are typing messages in, when you have finished 40
lines,  the Host tells you so, and puts you in edit mode.  At that
point you  have a couple choices.  You can just save it, then
start another post to  continue your message.  Before doing so
you might wish to change the  last line to read "Continued next
post" or some such.  Another choice  would be to cancel the
post and reenter it leaving out a few lines.  Or,  you could just
forget the whole thing.  I have done all of the above at  one
time or another.



     If you are uploading a text message file which contains
more than  40 lines you run into the same panic problem
mentioned above.  The  Host says you are through and puts you
into edit mode, you say the  heck I am and continue to send
text, an the Host tries to interpret that  text as editing
commands.  To avoid that problem you need to keep  track of
how many lines you have when you are creating the message
on your wordprocessor.  That may not be as easy as it sounds.
Forty  lines to the Host means as it creates them, using the
9-point font it  uses.  A line to the Host is indicated by a
Return, or 75 characters,  whichever comes first.  If you are
entering returns manually in your  word processor at the end
of each line, you can check things out by  changing to a 9-point
font (after completing the message if you prefer  to use a
larger font for editing).  You can then re-size your window if
it looks larger or smaller than normal.  Or you can use the
margin  setting capabilities of your wordprocessor to give you
say 72 characters  per line, and set your window accordingly.
You can just count the  number of lines, unless you have some
utility to do it for you.



     If your message is more than 40 lines you will have to
break it  into two or more files, ending with "Continued next
post" as described  above.  There are some utilities that will
break a long text file into  shorter ones.  As of this writing, I
don't know of one which will let you  specify number of lines,
or even the number of characters.  The ones I  know of let you
break a file into k-bytes, and don't let you specify how  many.
I'm sure there is one out there some place.  I'll let you know
when I find it.



     I compose most of my text using the miniWriter desk
accessory.   It comes closer to being a wordprocessor than any
of the other desk  accessory text processors I know of.  You
can set the font to any in  your system (all text has to be the
same font, as with the others).  It  has a line, word, character
counter built in.  Perhaps the best is that it  prints using the
native ImageWriter fonts.  What this means is that it  you can
get much better quality drafts and "best" at a faster speed.  If
you install the ImageWriter fonts and use them, it comes
pretty close  to what you see is what you get.  And, it provides
an easy way to  insert bold, italics and underline to get those
typestyles at the faster  speeds.  Of course much of this
doesn't help directly for uploads, but  I've taken the time
because I think it is such a good desk accessory text
processor.



======================================================
   BOTTOM LINE (YES, THERE IS - FINALLY - AN END)
======================================================



     Uploading text messages is not as difficult as I may have
made it  appear.  Don't judge by the length of this article;  I
have gone into  depth to cover all the angles (or all I could
think of) and hit a few asides on the way.  In the end, there
will be some trial with errors  (I'm still having them myself!).
But, it will be worth the effort, both  for you, and your fellow AMUG members.